Ruth Owens

Ruth Owens is a figurative painter and video artist from the southern United States. Owens’ work preserves and contributes to the Black archive by creatively using personal super-8 film references from the 1960s. In 2024 she was selected to exhibit in the Prospect.6 Triennial in New Orleans and exhibited a solo show at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Mississippi. Artist residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Vermont Studio Center, the  Studios at MASS MoCA and the International Studio and Curatorial Program in NY. Her work is in the permanent collections of the 21c Museums, Ackland Art Museum at UNC Chapel Hill, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Fidelity Investments Corporate Collection, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. 

Education

2018

Master of Fine Arts, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA.

1986

Doctorate of Medicine, Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, IL.

1981

Bachelor of Arts, Carleton College, Northfield, MN.

Solo Exhibitions

2024

“Kidnapped on a Sunny Day,” The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Beach Drive, Biloxi, MS

“Kidnapped on a Sunny Day,” The Front Gallery, St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA

2023

“Entanglement: all life is life,” Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Julia St., New Orleans, LA

2021

“Be Kind to Yourself,” Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Julia St., New Orleans, LA

2020

“Black Outdoors,” Southeastern Louisiana University Contemporary Art Gallery, Hammond, LA

2019

“Good Family,” The Front Gallery, St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA

2018

“Identity Theft,” Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Julia St., New Orleans, LA

“Baby Love,” University of New Orleans Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2017

“Conspiracies,” Barrister’s Gallery, St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA

2016

“Steppin ’Out,” Xavier University Chapel Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Group Exhibitions

2025

AVIFF International Art Film Festival, “Visitation, A Cosmogram in Four Movements,” 2022 Artplexe Marseilles, France

2024

“The Contemporary South,” The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA

“Individuals,” Second Story Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2023

“Allumer Natchez,” Natchez, MS

“Knowing Who We Are: The Contemporary Dialogue,” The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA

“Tiny Flicks Screening,” Parlour Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2022

“Summer Reading,” Carroll Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

2021

“Art After 1950,” Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

2021

“Art in Embassies,” Embassy of the United States of America, Kampala, Uganda

2020

“Good Family,” Canadian Independent Film Festival, Montreal-Quebec, Canada

“Suffrage 100,” Sue and Eugene Mercy Gallery, Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT

“Expanding the Narrative: Recent Acquisitions,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA

“Forever is Composed of Nows,” A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2019

“Louisiana Contemporary, 2019,” Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

“New Orleans Film Festival, 2019,” New Orleans, LA

“Welcome to the Afrofuture: Ground Zero,” New Orleans African American Museum, New Orleans, LA

“Active Directions of the Mind,” A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

“The Wizard,” Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA.

Art on Paper, Pier 36, New York, NY

2018

“True Blue,” UNO St. Claude Gallery, New Orleans, LA

“oh motHER,” Custom House Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

“Tango,” Little Berlin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

“Responsorial: The Second Sex and the Contemporary Dialectics of Misogyny,” New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, New Orleans, LA

“The Future is Female,” UNO St. Claude Gallery, New Orleans, LA

“CURRENT,” Isaac Delgado Fine Arts Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Public Collections

2024

Dark Alocasia, Ochsner Children’s Hospital Public Collection

2023

Witness, 21 C Museum

2022

Bianca, study, Witness, study; Summertime Girl, study; Schwanda, 21C Museum

2021

Lessons Lost, Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Vietnam Opa, study, Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, University of Southern Mississippi

Boyguide II, Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2020

Vietnam Opa, Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2019

True Blue, Artist Portfolio, New Orleans Museum of Art

2018

Wally and Husband, Addison Gallery of American Art

Residencies

March 2024 Mass MoCA

April 2023 International Studio & Curatorial Program-NY

July 2022 Mass MoCA

September 2020 Joan Mitchell Center

February 2019 Addison Gallery of American Art

July 2018 The Vermont Studio Center

Grants and Honors

2024

Prospect.6 Triennial Artist

2023

“Creative Conversation,” The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA

2022

National Performance Network, Take Notice Fund Grant

South Arts Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant

Joseph Robert Foundation Grant

Sherrill Collection of American Art Foundation Grant

2021

Wassaic Project Editions Program Invitee

Focus Artist, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA

Press

2025

“Prospect.6: The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home” Art Papers, March 2025

2024

“Prospect.6 Casts New Orleans as a Harbinger and a Harbour” Frieze Magazine, November 2024

“Ruth Owens: Kidnapped on a Sunny Day at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi” Emily Alessandrini for Burnaway, November, 2024

2022

“Volta Visits: Ruth Owens,” Gallery Gurls for Volta Art Fairs, New York, May 6

2020

“Black Outdoors: Ruth Owens in Hammond, Louisiana,” Burnaway: The Voice of Art in the South, October 15

2019

“Artist Ruth Owens reflects on racial, cultural meanings of phrase ‘good family’” The Gambit, May 27

2018

“On Camera: Ruth Owens at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery,” Pelican Bomb Review, August 23

“Review: ‘Identity Theft ’and ‘Balancing Cultures’,” The Gambit, August 6

2017

“Identities,” The New Orleans Art Review, June 1

“Review: Conspiracies and Surrounding Circumstances,” The Gambit, April 19

2016

“Contemporary Artists Respond to the New Orleans Baby Dolls,” The Gambit, April 6

2015

“Review: Louisiana Contemporary,”The Gambit, September 8